#charles has no context... yet

[technically-human]

can you draw Edwin doodling embarrassing shit like ‘Edwin Rowland’ or a little doodle of Charles’s face with hearts around it then Charles comes up behind him like what are you doing?

He had some very specific embarrassing doodles in mind

ko-fi

[xxplastic-cubexx]

erik will genuinely jump at any chance he can to steal charles' last name and be so catty about it i know this for a fact WHAT is his deal

[Magneto (2011)]

[darkestwings-hellishsoul]

Love finding out who at my job is a closet racist

(so i can be rude to them of course)

[speciallivery]

No actually, I feel bad for Lando Norris. Because he's been having an amazing season, not only did he get his first win, more followed and he's been getting great results overall. But everyone around him, including his team it seems, is not celebrating that as the feat it is.

Everything Lando has done, has been put into the context of him taking something away from Max. Taking away a win, taking away the WDC. Lando's acomplishments are not celebrated as his own, instead the media is celebrating that Max is losing. It's weird, especially when you compare it with Charles who has had the same amount of wins this year as Lando, but is celebrated for all his accomplishments (and rightfully so)

He's immediately been built up as THE guy who in 2024 will knock Max down a peg and become the new world champion (which let's be honest here, the point gap has not been closing, this battle never really was one). Instead of celebrating the start of the part of his career where he became a serious championship contender, 2024 will now be remebered as the first time he lost out on the WDC, even though he was never in de race yet.

Lando Norris' accomplishments this year are super impresive. It is unfair that these wins are being framed as not enough and a lost title instead of the rise of a great driver.

[beforetimes]

telepathy kink is always talked about but i loveee the way erik's relationship with charles' mutation is dependant on how much he trusts charles + how willing he would be to submit to charles should he ever use it. like in first class charles spends time flicking in and out of erik's head no issue because erik trusts charles and also when charles was in erik's head, he brought out a piece of happiness that erik no longer thought he had. so he's more willing to submit to charles' telepathy. and he puts the helmet on because he's more vulnerable directly after killing the man who was such a direct source of violence in his life and realizing that it wasn't enough—which probably shook erik to his core, because his whole life he's been hunting this one guy just to find that it's not over yet?

and then in days of future past, erik once again goes back to saying 'i don't have my helmet i couldn't disobey you if i wanted' which some people read as a taunt, some people read as him not accepting charles' mutation (which like? i don't think erik has ever not accepted him, but whatever) but i personally read it as erik once more trying to find his footing with charles after a decade apart.

anyway now that i talked about canon stuff i think specifically in the context of a sexual relationship, the telepathy stuff would be a way for erik to give up control over the situation and put his full trust in charles. which is important because a) erik is someone who thrives on being in control and finds it very important because so much of his agency was robbed of him and choosing to submit to a higher power than his own is something that insinuates a great deal of trust in the other party and b) charles is the only one who he could do this with because charles proved that he had the capacity to invade erik's mind and know him wholly and didn't take advantage of that and has shown time and time again he will help erik no matter what.

its also the fact that erik repeatedly implies that charles' telepathy will be used to control him when its a much more surface-level/baseline understanding that telepathy is the reading of minds rather than outright taking control of them. it's even in the definition of telepathy. but knowing charles can take control of him and constantly inviting him to (in an assumed sexual context, in this case) highlights how erik sort of longs to have responsibility for his actions taken away from him. which again can only be done by charles. not just because of his powers but because so many of his actions have directly hurt charles and he's the only one who can both metaphorically and physically relieve him of the culpability behind the consequences of what he's done when in complete control of himself. so again erik is someone who wants to relieve himself of his overly-controlling nature, his responsibilities, be completely vulnerable to someone who's seen him at his worst and loved him anyway.

and the only way erik can be all these things at once is by being under charles' control. (under the control of someone stronger than erik who has proven he will never hurt him with the power charles can exert over him).

so like sexually yes it's fun to say haha erik telepathy kink but also i think it is something much more tender which encapsulates the fact that erik is only this vulnerable with someone he has so much trust in and that person can only ever be charles because its only around charles he can truly be wholly himself. and so submissive erik is real to me #tbh

hope this makes sense i am kind of just rambling

[whorekneecentral]

Sticky Fingers

Sebastian Vettel x Fem!Reader

Warnings: dad!seb, seb referring to himself as daddy, cheesy flirting, oral (m!receiving), the use of daddy in a sexual context, penetrative sex (p in v), breeding kink, hint to pregnancy kink if you squint, creampie, a touch of cum play, finger sucking, mommy kink but in a joking way.

Word Count: 2,112

Author's Note: would it really be me if I didn't start it off with my favourite dilf on the planet?? happy holidays to everyone who celebrates in whatever way you do and to those of you who don't, I hope you have a wonderful winter season!!

merry smutmas series

--

Your husband spends his first Christmas at home since his retirement and he went a little.. a lot over board. 

It had been a long year; Sebastian had been driving you mad as much as it was nice to have him home. A full year of retirement and Seb was making sure this holiday season was the best one yet.

Last year, after he retired, you had practically already gotten everything together for the holidays. Sebastian helped decorate and do activities with your daughter but this year, he was hands on from day one. He insisted you guys get a real tree as well as decorate the whole house from top to bottom. You couldn't count how many times he had you running to the store to pick up something for him and his newest holiday project.

Your daughter was upstairs in her bed, fast asleep with her messy blonde curls all scattered over the pillow when you checked on her. Sebastian had put her to bed while you had gone to take a shower.

Usually, you'd find him in bed by now or in the living room, finally working on the insanely long list of tv shows Charles had recommended to him over the years.

Tonight was different, the house was quiet and you couldn't seem to spot your husband anywhere as you made your way through the house.

A light peeked out from around the corner, the door to the basement slightly ajar and you pulled it open, slowly making your way downstairs.

You can see Sebastian from behind, the man freezes when he hears the creaking of the stairs. "It's just me," you announced, the man visibly relaxed, turning to smile at you.

"What are you doing down here?" You asked, finally making it down the stairs. "So secretive, are you jerking off?" You jokingly asked, Sebastian rolled his eyes.

"Don't need to do that when I have you," he raises his eyebrows and it was your turn to roll your eyes.

"Whatever Seb," you laughed, "seriously, what are you doing down here?"

"Trying to wrap this," Sebastian steps to the side, revealing the massive box that was behind him. On the front was a photo of the doll house your daughter wanted.. the ridiculously expensive dollhouse that is. It's not that you two didn't get your daughter what she wanted but she had to earn it. Just because her father is who he is and the fact that he has money, doesn't mean she should get whatever she wants.

You raise her as a normal kid, not some spoiled brat who gets whatever they want.

You huffed, arms folded over your chest as you looked at your husband. "Sebastian, you didn't."

He glances between you and the dollhouse. "What?"

"Do you know how expensive that is?"

"Yeah duh, I bought it babe." He says as if he was stating the obvious, which he was.

He takes a step towards you, grabbing your arms to unfold them, "listen, I know you don't want me to just buy her whatever she wants but it's Christmas and she did really well on her first term report card, remember ?" Sebastian smiles at you, trying to justify his purchase.

You sigh, nodding. You always gave in, both he and his daughter knew as much.

You reach up, holding his face. "You're the best daddy a girl could ask for."

From the moment the words left your mouth, you could see the gears turning in his head. Sebastian's hands grab your ass, squeezing it when he leans in to give you a kiss. "I know I am," he whispers against your lips and you know he did not mean it in the same way you had said it.

Laughing, you lean back in your husband's arms. "Only you can make that dirty."

The man swings you in the direction of your couch, dropping you down on it before getting on top of you. "I'll show you dirty," he says, kissing you once again.

Your legs wrapped around your husband, holding him against you. Seb's lips are all over you, hands slipping between the two of you, pulling on the hem of his t-shirt until he stops to take it off.

"Don't look at me like that," he teases, pushing your shirt up to kiss down your stomach. "Like what?" You breathe, head tipped back into the cushions.

"Like you want to fuck me."

"I'd give you another baby right now, Sebastian."

The man freezes, looking up at you. There's a wicked smile on his face. "Yeah?"

"Yeah," you nod, propping yourself up on your elbows to look down at him. Sebastian moves to between your legs, settling there for a minute as he presses kisses along your bare skin, following the trail from your hip, down your thighs to between them.

Your hand tangles in his blonde curls, giving it a tug and pulling him off of you before he can get to what he really wants. The man's brows furrow, looking at you. "Sweetheart," he huffs, fingers dragging along the bare skin of your thighs.

You give him a shove back with your foot, sitting up. Sebastian watches as you move him to sit and you move from the couch to the floor. Seb reaches for the pillow, dropping in front of you so you'd have some sort of cushioning; he knows even though this was your idea, you'd blame him for sore knees tomorrow.

"You're sure?" He asks, watching as your manicured nails tugs on the strings on his sweats. "Absolutely," you say, your eyes fixed on him as your hands rub up his thighs.

Seb watches as you lick your hand, his head tips back and a soft moan slips out when you wrap your hand around him, moving it up and down slowly.

His eyes don't move from you, watching your every move. His lips parted slightly, as if he was going to say something but he can't bring himself to. You lean forward, a hand wrapped around the base of his cock, the other resting on his thigh. Sebastian groans, teeth sinking into his bottom lip when you wrap your lips around him.

"God-" he breathed, his arm hung over the armrest and his head tipped back into the couch.

His eyes flutter shut when you hollow your cheeks, bobbing your head up and down. You glance up at your husband; eyes shut, his hand reaching down to tangle in your hair - pulling it into a makeshift ponytail.

You move yourself up a bit, lips still around the tip and your hand quickly replaces where your mouth was. Sebastian finally opens his eyes, looking down at you again just as your tongue swirls around the tip.

His hips involuntarily buck upwards, forcing you down on him a little bit more. "Oh fuc- baby, do that- yeah." He's out of breath when he whispers the words.

That was a reaction only you could get out of him.

It was killing him but he forces himself to pull you up off of him, your hand wraps around his cock, moving it slowly. "What?" You asked, your tongue running across your bottom lip - the sight alone makes his cock twitch in your hand; you smile at the reaction.

"I was gonna cum."

"So? I'm not complaining." You tell him, leaning forward to rest your cheek on his thigh. Sebastian reaches down, his knuckles brushing over your cheek - red and flushed.

You looked so beautiful like this.

Sebastian smiles, "I know but.. what if I wanted to try for one more?"

"One more?" You asked, brows furrowed as you looked up at the man. It takes you a moment, your husband's glance was suggestive, as if you were meant to remember something - "Oh!" You giggled, sitting up straight now. "I mean.. yeah."

"So.." he grabs your arm, carefully pulling you up. "C'mere."

Climbing onto your husband's lap, you straddle him and your hand rests on his shoulder to balance yourself. Seb reaches between the two of you, his wrist brushing against your bare cunt when he goes to line himself up with you.

The slightest touch causes you to lean into him; watching him react to you sucking him off was enough to get you worked up.

"All for me?" He looks at you, kissing along your throat.

You hum, teasing him. "Not like I can say it's for your teammate anymore."

Sebastian smiles, his free hand on your hip as you sink down onto him. Your lips parted, his name slipped from between them. As much as he loved to hear you, he didn't want to wake up the sleeping child upstairs - he kissed you, muffling the sweet sounds coming from you.

You liked to be in control up to a certain point, Seb's hands rested on your hips as you bounced on his lap, setting the pace.

After a moment, Seb's hands begin to wander; this man could never settle, not even during sex. His hands move from your hips to the curve of your spine to the back of your neck, holding a firm grip there. You couldn't exactly move, not that you wanted too, but Sebastian forces you down, gently as always, to kiss you. You bite his bottom lip, giving it a gentle pull when he feels you clench around his cock.

"You're - fuck." he moans, making you giggle.

Your hand rests on his jaw, fingers tapping his stubble covered cheek. "I'm what, daddy?"

"You're evil," he mumbles, his hand on your lower back before he flips the two of you. You end up under him, legs wrapped around his hips.

A hand moves to behind his shoulder, your perfectly red nails dig into his pale skin, the marks you left matched the colour of your nails; very festive, you thought to yourself.

Seb's face is buried into the crook of your neck, kissing down to that one spot he knows drives you crazy. "Seb-" you cut yourself off with a moan when you feel his fingers on your clit.

"What was that?" He taunts, watching as your eyes close, back arched, his chest pressed to yours. His lips travel down to your chest, kissing over your tits and as far as he could go. Your nails dig into him once more, Seb feels you clench around him.

"Seb- I'm gonna, fuck-" you mumble and he hums in response, kissing along your jaw.

"Go on, I'm right here baby. C'mon, be good for me." He whispers, he grabs your hand, pulling it to rest on your lower stomach. "Can you feel that, hm? You'd look so pretty with a baby in you - fuck, drove me crazy last time."

You mumble something he doesn't quite catch but from the look on your face, you were going along with everything.

"Please Seb," your lips are on his, begging him for any and everything."

"Please what, sweetheart?" His eyes find yours, "what do you want? You want me to cum in you?"

"Let me make you a daddy again, Seb."

The man groans, your legs tightening around him. "Fuck, okay," he breathes, cheat heaving when you clench around him once more, the tighten knot in your lower stomach comes undone. You find yourself calling his name; the sound and sight of you was something Sebastian never wanted to forget. He finds himself following shortly after you, dropping down on top of you.

Seb moves off of you, pulling out in the process. A soft whimper slipping past your lips at the loss of fullness. He tsks, smiling to himself. His finger drags along your pussy, he watches how you react to his touch, pushing his finger into you to fuck what's slipping back into you.

Before you realize, his hands moved from between your legs to your lips. "Open," he tells you and you do, the man putting his finger between your lips, letting you suck it clean.

He smiles, watching in approval before you let his finger go with a pop. "Good girl," he whispers, holding your jaw when he kisses you.

Seb shifts the two of you, letting you cuddle into his side. His hand rubs along your side, your leg stretched out over his lap.

"You okay?"

"Perfect," you smile, your hand on his chest.

"Well, when we do get up-" he starts but you cut him off, already knowing where he's going. "I'll help you wrap it." You tell him, making him laugh.

"You're the best mommy a girl could ask for," he says and you make a face, laughing. "Doesn't work that way babe."

"Ew, no - I didn't mean like that, you freak."

"Oh shut up," you shook your head, reaching up to kiss your husband.

--

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[aletterinthenameofsanity]

the fact that the kiss between Charles and Crystal explicitly frames the platonic relationship (Edwin&Niko watching Scooby Doo together) as being more fulfilling within that moment than the romantic one (the Charles/Crystal kiss) because the romantic one has some godawful timing/is connecting in the wrong place/wrong time for both of them meanwhile the platonic one is actually leading to a place of comfort/safety for edwin&niko gets me every time.

like cryland have some good points where they connect/reassure each other in way that no other can (such as that lovely moment of connection in the devlin house), but it fascinates me that their kiss is not one of those good moments, and that in the moment that they are having their first kiss (the moment where they are the most physically intimate they have ever been), it is actively being framed as being the moment that they are unable to connect with each other, literally showing the moment that they are hitting up against the wall between each other, living and dead on either side, each of them craving, needing, something from each other that they cannot get from each other by the mere fact of their mode of physical existence on separate planes from each other.

on this note, on this point, it is also notable to me that their only other kiss in season one is explicitly a goodbye kiss. neither kiss fulfills what the characters need/want in a romantic sense or is framed within a joyous context, but instead shows the moments that they are separating from each other or are on a separate page from each other. their platonic moments are framed within a more positive/emotionally fulfilling/connecting pov than their romantic ones.

cryland's romantic bittersweetness fascinates me, as it is a fantastic exploration of two people who desperately crave something (charles wants to feel alive; crystal wants to feel real) that they cannot get from each other. charles can never feel crystal on the same "living" plane on him unless she dies, and crystal cannot feel real with a boy who 1) she cannot feel and 2) is actively putting on a mask to please his romantic interests because he needs to be the one "always smiling."

at this point in their journeys, they're incompatible in the endgame and yet they are beautifully, wonderfully, important to each other's romantic development/personal development in the meantime. yes, crystal cannot make charles feel alive, and charles cannot make crystal feel real, but crystal can help charles open up and work through the devlin house and his relationship with his father, and charles can help crystal feel protected and supported when she has only ever felt neglected or exploited.

[no-144444]

https://www.tumblr.com/no-144444/780788902343622656/a-little-better-cleclerc?source=share

Yes! More parts

the time is nigh- c.leclerc

꩜ summary: imola is fast-approaching and a decision needs to be made

꩜ pairing: husband! charles leclerc x fem! pregnant! wife! reader

꩜ a/n: suggestive mentions 18+

part one, part two (this can be read on it's own tho but this just gives more context)

The Imola Gp was fast-approaching. Charles was becoming increasingly nervous, due to the fact that you were a few days past your due date, and he’d have to make a decision, either miss the race and risk the baby not being born yet, or don’t miss the race and risk missing the baby. 

Realistically, he knew he was going to choose you. Either way, whatever that meant, he would choose you. 

“I need an answer,” Fred sighed. “You have to have your full focus on this team Charles, when you’re here, you need to be here.” 

He glanced your way from where he sat- back against the headboard. You were still asleep, looking ridiculously gorgeous as you slept soundly beside him, the early morning light shining in through the gaps in the blinds. Your hair a little messy, your mouth a little open, your brow furrowed. You had trouble getting to sleep these days, especially with Lina (a name you two were trying out) constantly kicking and moving about. He smoothed a hand over your forehead, brushing some hair out of your face, your nose scratched up, and subconsciously leaned further into his touch. His heart squeezed, and his decision was even easier. “I can’t come this weekend Fred, my family has to come first. Fred, you know better than anyone that I have given our team my everything for as long as I’ve been there, and I’ll continue to when I’m on working hours. Other than that, it’s up to me to decide on what I need.”

“I understand. I’ll tell Zhou he’ll be driving this weekend. Thank you for being honest, Charles,” Fred ended the call before Charles could ask what that meant, but regardless, as the decision settled in his mind, it didn’t create a black hole around his heart, as so many of his decisions had before. Decisions that put you on the chopping block. Decisions that he knew would make your life harder.

“Who was on the phone?” you wrapped an arm around his middle, leaning your head against his lower stomach. He wrapped an arm around your back. He missed this. Mornings with nothing to do. Mornings with you. 

“I’m sorry I woke you up,” he sighed, pulling you closer. “Just Fred.” 

You stiffened, eyes turning up to meet him. Your hand turned to a fist and retracted from his body. You sat up. “Oh,” you nodded. “When do you leave?” 

He shook his head, a hand reaching out to take yours. “No baby! No, I’m staying here, obviously.”

You stared at him. “You’re staying?” you questioned. He nodded. He couldn’t help but see the way your eyes lit up, the way your shoulders dropped a bit, the way your ears perked up. “That’s great,” you smiled, clearly trying to contain your excitement. 

“I don’t want to miss Lina,” he smiled, rubbing a hand over your swollen belly. “And I want to be there for you.”

You smiled right back at him, eyes bright and shining. You leaned into him again, his warm skin against yours. “Thank you,” you whispered. He just stared as you relaxed beside him, eyes closing again. The soothing circles he was drawing on your stomach, his heat warming you up, that feeling of being cared for, something you hadn’t realised had been so absent from your life. He watched you like you were his favourite channel now, when before he could barely spare you a glance. “We can go to the market today,” you whispered, a sleepy tone of voice. Charles chuckled beside you. 

A ringing doorbell broke you both out of your bed, and he rushed to get up before you even moved. You chuckled as he slid across the hardwood floors, making sure you didn’t have to move a muscle. 

“Maman?” he questioned. “What are you doing here?” 

“We need to have a baby,” she answered as if it were obvious. Her and Arthur pushed into the house, moving Charles to the side. “Doctor’s don’t want to induce yet, so we have our own ideas!” 

If it weren’t for the early hour and the fact that Charles had wanted you to himself for a day before all the crazy baby stuff started and he had to go back to work, he would’ve thought this was super sweet. He frowned as his mother placed a grocery bag on the counter. “Maman, Lina will come when she’s ready-”

“You’ve picked a name?!” she squealed. “Oh, Lina is so beautiful, I love it!”

Charles sighed. “Maman, she will come when she’s ready, we don’t need to-”

“It’s not a terrible idea,” you shrugged, standing in the doorway. One of Charles’s old ferrari hoodies draped over your swollen belly, tiny pyjama shorts, and a curious look in your eyes. “I wouldn’t mind if it happened today.”

He would’ve argued if you didn’t look so beautiful it made him lightheaded. “Smart girl!” his mother quipped, kissing your cheek. “So I looked it up, and it said spicy things help, so I got you some peppers. Dates are also supposed to be good, so there’s a bag of those,” she unpacked the bag as you listened intently, and Charles just watched in awe. “Raspberry leaf tea, pineapple-”

“Lube?” Arthur chuckled, picking up the bottle. “Maman, how do you think they got into this situation-?”

“Turtur,” Pascale slapped his arm as he giggled. “The last thing is sex, apparently it helps,” she shrugged. “Anyway, you guys have fun, call us if little Lina is on her way!” she smiled, leaving the both of you standing shocked in the apartment. 

“Never thought I’d hear your mom talk about sex,” you admitted, placing the lube on the counter. “Kind of shocked.” 

“Agreed,” Charles sighed, cheeks red. “Well, we’ll give them a shot. Dates first?” he looked at you, and you looked down. He could sense there was something behind it, but he didn’t want to pry. This balancing game he’d gotten so used to being able to figure out, got a little bit more complex. He stared. “Or the spicy food?”

You sighed. This shouldn’t be so awkward! You told yourself. Just tell him! “Ummm,” you cleared your throat. “I could… I think I’d like to have sex,” you responded in the most awkward way possible. “Or not. I don’t mind.”

He looked at you with all the affection in the world. “Oh ma chérie,” he chuckled, wrapping his arms around your waist (as best he could). “Why do you look so nervous?” 

You shrugged. “It’s been a while,” you didn’t meet his eyes. That was fine. “I didn’t know if you were still… y’know.” 

He stilled. “What are you trying to say?” he asked, his voice low. You didn’t answer. “Mon cœur-”

You pulled away, crossing your arms as you leaned against the counter. This is so humiliating. You thought, wanting to just crawl up in a ball and die. He was your husband, and yes, you noticed the way he pulled away as your body changed. You didn’t think much of it in the beginning, then it became the only reason you could think of. But you’d pushed it away in recent weeks, focusing on the new Charles, the one who cared. “You’ve been so distant for so long, especially since the second trimester. I just… I don’t know. I thought you didn’t think I was sexy to you anymore, or something. We don’t have to do it, it’s stupid anyway-”

“Baby,” he took your hand. You kept your eyes on the ground. “I think you’re the most beautiful,” he pressed a kiss to your cheek. “Most kind,” he pressed a kiss to your neck. “Seixiest,” he pressed a kiss to your collarbone. “Most wonderful,” he pressed a kiss to your bump. “Most irresistible woman on the planet, and I plan on reminding you of that, right now.” 

He smirked from his kneeling position in front of you, and you felt that flicker in your chest, the kind that you felt at the beginning. That fun you’d both missed for so long. 

You woke up at about 4pm, surfacing after a long morning, where Charles showed you exactly what he meant. 

“Mon amour,” Charles whispered, turning over and switching on the light. “Why is the bed wet?” 

Holy shit. Now was the moment.  You were going to be a mom. Charles was going to be a dad.

navigation for my blog :)

ferrari masterlist

taglist:

@awritingtree @boherahpsody @janeh22 @dustie-faerie @anayaverse @buckybarnessweetheart @scriptedinkbyxim @ferrarisstr @freyathehuntress @isagrace22 @htpssgavi @chloemehchloe @ggaslyp1 @pookynknowntranger

[no--mourners--no--funerals]

the way this show portrays the pain and suffering that queer people have to go through just by existing in conditions that hate them. is unparalleled to anything i've seen in media.

edwin's journey to discovering what his feelings are, that they are normal, that they are felt by so many others, and that he does not deserve torture for being himself, is so beautifully explored over the course of the series.

i'm only on episode 7, and the way he is reassuring simon that being gay is not something he should have to suffer for, is the most selfless and inspiring thing i've ever seen. not just because it shows how much he has come to accept his own feelings for charles, but in the context of what simon did to him, it is the most brave thing.

because queer folk don't deserve despair for being themselves and even though simon is where he is for a different reason, he is tortured also by his own hand. for feeling the way he did about edwin and hating himself for it.

i didnt think it was possible to love this show more and yet i keep finding reasons to adore the storytelling in every way. here's to season two.

[perseidlion]

So there's this character in Dead Boy Detectives.

He's:

Attractive

Flirts shamelessly with Edwin

Makes physical advances toward Edwin

Makes Charles jealous and "gets in the way of the main ship"

Is of indeterminate age but is possibly decades or centuries old

Can transform into an animal.

And it's this guy:

AND YET I have never seen any discourse calling Monty a creep and a predator.

Unlike The Cat King, he even kissed Edwin suddenly and without explicit consent. He also lied, manipulated and betrayed all of them and nearly got them killed. Yes, he said he didn't know Esther was planning on destroying them. But c'mon, it's Esther.

Somehow though, the fandom vilifies The Cat King more than Monty. I think the reason why is worth a long, hard look in the mirror.

The biggest difference between the two is TCK's sexual nature and his in-your-face queerness. Those are two things that have been historically vilified and othered about gay/queer men.

Even these days, through the whole "no kink at pride" discourse, this argument continues through respectability politics.

Simply put, a short little twink with a crush is a non-threatening gay man, while TCK with his overt sensuality and gender non-conforming clothing represents a threat. Monty's advances are seen as cute, while TCK's are predatory, even though Monty propositioned Edwin with a kiss as surely as TCK overtly propositioned him.

If TCK's sexually-charged flirting bothered you in a way that Monty's advances didn't (despite the fact the audience knew that at least at first, Monty's advances were a big old lie) ask yourself why that is. The reason is probably that you were taught to fear and vilify overt displays of queer sexuality . Even queer people need to unlearn this particular bias.

And just to cover all the bases, I will shout again that The Cat King is a fae/trickster and that Edwin's punishment was proportionate in that context. Edwin used magic and confined a creature he knew to be as intelligent as a human and was punished for it with a very long leash and a (totally doable) task. It was a task designed to make Edwin see the cats as individuals instead of tools to help him close a case. The sort of fiction that DBD has its roots in (and the source material) is full of these sort of eye-for-an-eye type of punishments with magical creatures.

Just to be clear, I don't think we should be vilifying Monty, either. You can't 1:1 fictional scenarios onto real life and apply our standards of morality to them, especially not in a setting with man-eating mushrooms, ghosts, and transforming animals. All the conflict these two characters brought to the plot was necessary. If everyone acted with perfect morality all the time, fiction would be incredibly boring.

And IF you did apply RL standards to fiction, you would have to acknowledge that Edwin's crime of binding and forcing a fully sentient being to give him information violated just as much consent as TCK putting that bracelet on Edwin. And that Monty was just as "predatory" as The Cat King, if not more so. The Cat King, at least, never lied to Edwin, while everything about Monty was a lie from the start.

[rei-ismyname]

Resurrection of Magneto Highlights 1

RoM is a book that loses something in the highlight format as the big moments are truly earned and impactful. There's an ongoing narration, dialogue or soliloquy running through each issue tying everything together and to truly give context I'd have to annotate it. Lucky for us, Al Ewing and Luciano Vecchio are masters and every panel serves as a coda for Storm or Magneto from SWORD and X-Men Red. This is easily my longest Highlights yet, there's just so much to say.

I wish I dreamt about Magneto

Ororo has a dream of a full page splash - Magneto, Max, saying 'I was wrong' surrounded by five of his iconic helmets. 3 red ones, bloody and facing towards the world. 1 black, 1 white upright behind his back. It's been quite a while since Uranos the Undying tore his heart out on Judgement Day but it's good to see Ororo has some measure of peace and love on Arakko with Craig of NASA.

She's the deuteragonist of RoM so she chooses to follow her dream and seek Max in the afterlife. Ororo shows up at Adam Brashear/The Blue Marvel's underwater base and asks for help with exactly that. He lampshades how bozos like Reed would deem it impossible and leads her to a portal. He's in the middle of explaining how dangerous it is and requires... we don't hear because Storm takes a running leap and YOLOs into it. Tarn the Uncaring and a who's who of Marvel cosmology are there to greet her. Tarn is insulted that Ororo has come for the guy who exploded his head, but as above, so below - he loves to talk and she outwits him.

Ashake is often obliquely referred to but very rarely directly, so it's lovely to see her magical ancestor here to help. As Ororo pets her black cat, Ashake confirms this is a place of magic. Symbols and metaphors are powerful here - something Mags could use help with in his current state. It's also connected to the Kabbalistic tree of life, but I'm not very knowledgeable about that.

Two redrawn and recoloured keystone moments of Max and Ororo's relationship down the bottom.

She resolved to see this through and her thought carries her towards the Sphere of Judgement. Unexpectedly a bunch of Dominions bar her path, though luckily the two mutants are too small to truly be of interest to them. Still, a single mortal arriving in Overspace is significant and they prompt her to ask questions. The face of Dominions are shown but it's still fairy tale rules. The most important thing she learns is about Enigma, though she doesn't know it at the time.

The Sphere of Judgement is hostile, everything is inverted. Lightning is red, the river is lava, clouds are black, everything is broken. She notices this spot from her dream and the charred frames of Max's five helmets still sit in blood. Magneto has been here for months by choice, bypassing the Waiting Room Wanda built but refusing to move on. He believes he deserves this.

Finally she reaches Magneto weeping blood in front of a wall of names. Everyone he ever killed and he's counting every one, remembering their name. He's judging himself, punishing, and doesn't think he deserves to leave.

He shares his greatest shames, his most recent cruelties. Worst, the ones he convinced himself was necessary. He's overwhelmed by the red in his ledger and in this place of judgement lashes out, flinging names off the wall at Ororo while naming the person. What snaps him out of it is the mention that something happened to Charles, heh.

'The no-place of his heart' 👌

Max turns the judgement on Ororo but she rejects it, calling him out for extending Charles the grace he won't extend to himself plus a little hypocrisy. Magneto has always been prone to drama and that tendency can hurt as much as it heals.

That really gets him going, but he's judging himself more constructively now. Love, friendship, accountability. The things that are keeping some part of tethered to the living world. He pulls one more name down to say the name aloud before he sends it at Ororo - it's his - Max Eisenhardt. Still, he cries 'it's out of our hands.' He truly wants to give up but I think a part of him knows his story isn't done.

Ororo disagrees. Displaying why she's the only person who could assist in the resurrection of Magneto, she covers his eyes and remembers the rules of this place. The wall of the dead becomes its opposite - the wall of the living. Not those he killed but those he saved. It's enough to pull him out of punishing himself. Neither group should be forgotten but he can choose to save life rather than take it - to change.

Torturing yourself in a personal hell might appease some of those dead, but accepting responsibility to the living should be what comes after judgement. Suffering helps no one, and as he says to Logan as he's about to kill Charles much later - 'no more martyrs.' Part of why I enjoyed Magneto identifying Logan Behavior is because he himself is the king of it. Charles too. All three are prone to martyrdom but dying is easy. It's living that's difficult and worthwhile. Secluding yourself from the world, whether it's in the Sphere of Judgement, a mega prison, or with a pack of wolves - is senseless and selfish. Living is better.

Next time - what does that actually mean for both of them and how do they get out of this place? It's not as simple as turning a key. Choosing to live is hard work. Metatextually, change and rebirth requires a tour of all that he is, all that he's done. What's the point of killing a character and then bringing them back the same as they were? Comic books do it all the time, but Magneto's long history is a study of opposites and extremes. He, the writer and the reader all need to deconstruct Magneto so he can be reconstructed as a better person. With the benefit of hindsight we know he succeeds, but what does that actually look like for him? 60 years of his oversized influence on the world is a lot and it only gets better from here.

[shittalkerxox]

I saw someone in a TikTok comment saying they didn't really think DBD was that great of Queer rep because none of the ships actually ended up together at the end of S1. But here's the thing, Queer rep isn't always about gay couples - it's about the characters, and yeah, the easiest way to show a Queer character is putting them in a queer relationship, but that's not what it's all about.

I found DBD particularly fascinating because the queerness of these characters wasn't the main focus - it's not a romance, it's a teen drama that mainly focuses on character development (as seen with Edwin coming yo terms with his sexuality, Crystal overcoming her experience with her abusive ex, Charles dealing with the trauma of having an abusive parent, and even Niko dealing with contacting her mother and dealing with her father's death) it's about the relationships, but not necessarily in a romantic manner.

Charles and Edwin's relationship is one of the main focuses on the show, and yeah, eventually, they'll end up together, but they first have to get over these obstacles in their own internal lives. Charles has to be able to regulate and deal with his own emotions instead of repressing them, hiding them with humour, and eventually lashing out, and Edwin has to be comfortable in himself before he can be comfortable in a relationship - and they would be true if they were a straight or a gay couple.

Queer representation doesn't need to be the main focus of everything - if this were a romance, then yeah, maybe, but it isn't. I don't think any of the relationships in the show would have changed if they weren't queer and that's what representation is about. It's about breaking down these barriers that separate a gay couple from a straight couple. It's about showing that love isn't defined by a gender or whatever.

And it needs to be realistic. For me, watching shows like Heartstopper (I haven't seen all of it, I read the webcomic like 3 years ago, tho) it felt very surface level because it was almost like every plot point revolved around the characters being queer, and while I love that and think it's great for a younger queer audience (like 13/14) I think shows should focus less on making gay characters and couple to please an audience, and focus more on creating in depth meaningful characters who just so happen to be gay.

Shows like Good Omens, I feel did a great job with dealing with a queer narrative. It's not technically about a queer relationship as the main focus, and yet the audience is still able to pick up on it and catagorise it as queer media.

Is Dead Boy Detectives perfect in this regard? Of course not, no piece of media is perfect, but I do like how they've dealt with it.

People need to realise that shows can have an underlying queer narrative without queerbaiting or specifically stating so. In DBD, characters never state their sexuality because it doesn't matter to the show - not to mention two of the main characters are from periods of time where labels weren't a huge thing, or even known about but we are still able to pick up these context clues that point towards a preference for them.

[hey-there-22]

CHARLES DESERVES MORE RECOGNITION FOR THIS

I mean, just look at how he grabs things out of the bag of tricks:

So yeah, when Edwin says “Once again, it is the large, blue medical volume“ I´m not surprised Charles couldn't give him the book he is referring to. They must have many medical books and telling him the color isn't gonna help ´cause he isn't used to identifying books by their color because he can't look at them when he is taking them out of the bag of tricks. So he just offers Edwin books he thinks may be useful in the situation (he shows him the correct one btw) even if they don´t match the color description.

If Edwin had given him the title or a better description of the book he was looking for, I'm sure he would have found it in no time. Charles knows their books. He has to. He's the one handing them to Edwin in the middle of stressful and dangerous situations. Maybe he hasn't read them, but he knows in what situations Edwin has asked for them before, so he knows what they are all used for.

Need more proof? No problem, that's what episode 6 is for. Bit of context; they are in the forest looking for Gladys and they see the deer being consumed by the spore colony. Immediately after, Charles goes to the office to look for a specific book without Edwin telling him which one, but he can't find it so Edwin goes through the mirror, points and describes the book and Chales takes it. Charles knows they have a book about it, he just doesn't know where it is, because (again) he cannot identify it by just looking at it.

You could say Charles just knows this specific book because they have used it before to solve the exact same problem they are facing in that episode, but… When the antidote doesn't work, he goes back to the office to take yet another book (again, the right one) and Edwin looks surprised, not identifying what book it is and having to look at the cover to see the title.

Charles knows his stuff, he is a great detective and he deserves the credit.

[wafflesrisa]

On the supposed breaching of a previous agreement

After so much misinformation has been debunked, the one item I’ve seen repeated again and again is that there was a prior agreement which Carlos supposedly broke - but Charles gave no actual information about what the agreement was.

Surely the logical conclusion to draw is that we simply don’t know what the agreement was, and so we cannot cast shade on either Charles nor Carlos off the back of the statement. We simply do not know.

Specifically, while we do know Charles subjectively thought an agreement was broken, we do not have any ability to evaluate whether that conclusion is objectively true. Indeed, we don’t even know whether Charles, when making that statement, even had all the facts to hand (given he is not privy to Carlos’ radio messages and debriefing had not yet happened).

In this context the statement from Charles cannot be taken as objective truth. At most, it is a clear indication he was feeling subjectively frustrated.

The response I’ve seen from all over social media seems to be “let’s take Charles’s word for it that trust was breached, even if we don’t know what the agreement was”.

We have no facts. We have no information. We cannot draw conclusions as to what the agreement was, and therefore we cannot know if Carlos actually breached it.

Until (if ever) we have more information, Charles’ comment can only be taken as evidencing his frustration, and no more.

[coraline-piange]

“Our deaths didn’t matter”: On vulnerabilities, precarious life and grievability in Netflix’s Dead Boy Detectives

oh, a little essay i wrote for my intro to gender and diversity studies seminar? yeah, i'll share that on tumblr :) (this was written in a day with almost no proof reading, so please keep that in mind)

A story about two teenage ghost boys solving supernatural mysteries while on the run from Death herself cannot get around discussing precarity of life and the conditions of grievability: What makes life precarious and why are some persons deemed grievable and others not? Dead Boy Detectives deals with the themes of loss and grief and injustice, its two main characters central to that exploration: Edwin Payne and Charles Rowland are two boys who have been killed at 16 and now run a supernatural detective agency to help other beings move on (to their afterlife) while themselves refusing to do the very same. Using Judith Butler’s theory of precarity and grievability, I argue that the series returns the grievability to the lives of the two ghost detectives: on the narrative level of the living and of the dead, as well as on a meta-narrative level. Starting out as ungrievable, Edwin and Charles come back to life through their respective character arcs as well as the show’s mere existence.

Butler distinguishes between precariousness and precarity: the first being the very condition of making “life” matter because of its fragile and injurious constitution, and the latter being the political and social conditions through which specific lives are apprehended as precarious or not (3, 24, 25). Precarity is therefore created through political mechanisms, frames which change and break out of themselves through time and space (10). The frames determine which life is recognised to matter and therefore needs protection at any point in time: “a life has to be intelligible as a life, has to conform to certain conceptions of what life is, in order to become recognizable. So just as norms of recognizability prepare the way for recognition, so schemas of intelligibility condition and produce norms of recognizability” (7). This mechanism becomes visible through the notion of a grievable life. Grievability appears as “a presupposition for the life that matters” (14). Thus, lives that are deemed grievable are in turn apprehended as precarious and to matter, whereas ungrievable lives “are ‘lose-able’, or can be forfeited, precisely because they are framed as being already lost or forfeited.” (31). They are considered a threat to the “right” kind of precarious life which in turn sanctions the use of violence against them. They exist in a state outside of life, “something living that is other than life […] and ungrieved when lost” (15). Butler’s notion of precarity and grievability is focused on the context of war, however it can be applied generally as well: Frames of vulnerability that ensure an unequal distribution of grievability exist in everyday life.

The mere premise of Dead Boy Detectives already gives reason to think about lives that matter. Here you have two teenage ghost boys that died with their whole lives still ahead of them. They are using their existence as ghosts as a sort of surrogate life — living for all intents and purposes without being alive — yet without the possibility of ever truly growing up, they are stuck being living dead. Their grievability lies in the unfulfilled potential they have because their lives have been cut short, “a life unlived”.

The narrative frames their deaths as unjust tragedies, not only because they died young, but because of the way they died and the treatment they received from the living following their deaths. Both boys are killed by their classmates in violent hate crimes for being different. Edwin is dragged from his bed at the boarding school St Hilarion’s in the middle of the night, gagged and bound to a table. His classmates, led by Simon, call him “Mary Ann”, a derogatory word used to describe effeminate gay men. Their goal is to scare Edwin by performing a sacrifice to the demon Sa’al unknowing that the ritual is real. Sa’al turns up, kills the classmates and takes Edwin to hell — apologizing for the technicality that seemingly forces his hand. In hell Edwin is tortured for the next 73 years before escaping in 1989 and returning to earth as a ghost. (“The Case of Crystal Palace” 31:09 – 33:08).

He meets Charles Rowland while the other boy is on the brink of death. Charles defended a classmate from bullies who targeted the classmate for being Pakistani. Charles stepping in had the bullies turn on him, beating him up and forcing him into a freezing lake while throwing stones at him. Charles manages to swim and then run away, hiding in the attic of St Hilarion’s. There he dies of hypothermia and internal bleeding. (“The Case of the Lighthouse Leapers” 40:28 – 42:58). In the last few hours of his life, Edwin keeps him company. They form a friendship and, when Charles has passed away in the early morning, they run from Death together (“The Case of the Very Long Stairway” 10:14 – 15:02). While Edwin’s death hasn’t been changed much from the original version in the comics (except for the bleak detail of the classmates shoving his body into a trunk where it lay undiscovered for decades – the show simply has Edwin’s body disintegrate), the Netflix adaptation changed Charles’ death quite a bit: In the comics, he is alone at the school over winter break and victim to the escaped souls of Hell, including a cruel headmaster and Edwin’s bullies, who torture Charles for days before he dies (Gaiman). In the show, Charles dies at the hands of his racist classmates, not the supernatural.

Their deaths are human made, brought upon by other kids. While there arguably was no intent for murder in either case, the intent behind the hate crimes that led to the boys’ deaths betrays a disregard of lives that enabled violence in the first place. Edwin was targeted by bullies for his presumed homosexuality, both because of the outward homophobia of his classmates as well as Simon’s internalised homophobia. During Edwin’s brief return to hell in episode 7, Simon reveals that he used to have feelings for Edwin: “I got so embarrassed thinking we… We were the same” (“Very Long Stairway” 26:04). Simon recognised in them both that their homosexuality made them ungrievable in the eyes of 1910s British society where it was still criminalised. Instead of using this vulnerability to violence for solidarity and a united front, Simon hid his vulnerability and, in an attempt of proving his life’s precarity to his classmates, turned into the perpetrator of violence himself. In Butler’s words: “the shared condition of precariousness leads not to reciprocal recognition, but to a specific exploitation of targeted populations, of lives that are not quite lives cast as ‘destructible’ and ‘ungrievable’” (31). Edwin’s monologue in episode 1, when he tells Crystal Palace of their deaths, makes this ungrievability explicit:

Do you know what happened when I died, Crystal? Nothing. My disappearance was labelled ‘an act of God.’ And Charles? The boarding school covered up what happened to him. Our deaths didn’t matter. No one ever solved them. […] We are solving cases that would never be solved. […] We didn’t matter, he and I. So these cases matter. They have to matter. (“Crystal Palace” 40:09).

Similar to Edwin, Charles seems to have gone ungrieved. As a biracial Indian kid coming to the defence of a Pakistani boy, he is vulnerable to racist violence. Even before his death he experiences violence at the hands of his abusive father which he is not protected against. In fact, he carries that trauma with him more than 30 years after his death, unprocessed and unacknowledged. The cover-up of Charles’ death implies that the futures of his classmates were deemed to outweigh the crime of taking his unlived life. Their precarity was recognized while his was denied. His loss didn’t matter — just like Edwin’s hadn’t.

The narrative shows that the frame of their grievability shifts over time, however. While Edwin was not deemed grievable in 1916 and Charles experienced the same in 1989, they find value to their lives not only with each other but also through the people they help and meet. Most importantly, however, they learn to apprehend their own precarity over the course of the series by completing their character arcs: Through his encounters with the Cat King and Monty, Edwin learns to stop repressing his sexuality and to accept his romantic feelings for Charles, going so far as to confess his love to Charles on the stairs out of hell (“Very Long Stairway” 45:30). His acceptance and embracing of the very thing that made him vulnerable to violence gives him the ability to help absolve Simon of his guilt, enabling both of them to leave hell (Simon by moving on to the afterlife, Edwin by running out with Charles) and therefore breaking the cycle of violence. By acknowledging their respective grievability and vulnerability, both Simon and Edwin get to be apprehended as precarious lives.

Charles in turn is forced to process the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. He is confronted with his vulnerability and has to deal with the fear of turning into a perpetrator by virtue of being his father’s son. By acknowledging his anger at his fate, he finally allows himself to grief both the youth that was stolen from him by his father as well as the future taken from him by his classmates. After beating the Night Nurse, who is trying to force the boys to move on to their afterlives, into the mouth of a sea monster, he says: “Was it to extreme, Edwin? So was me dying at 16, mate. I don’t wanna be dead. I hate it.” (“Lighthouse Leapers” 44:10). This confession sets of Charles no longer repressing his anger and instead seeking reassurance from his friend. Through his grief, and through letting Edwin partake in that process, he returns grievability to his unlived life, making it matter.

Edwin’s and Charles’ vulnerabilities as minorities exposes the norms of the frames through which grievability and precarity are apprehended. They also show a shift in those frames: their story could be told because queer people’s and the lives of people of colour are nowadays deemed as precarious and worth telling. On a meta-narrative level, then, their unlives are made to matter again through the existence of the show. They get to tell their story and be the heroes in it, making sure other people’s lives matter and are grieved. By shining a light on the injustice that is their deaths, the show in some form grieves their unlived lives, making them matter and giving them precarity. The ghosts retroactively turn back into living beings. Ironically, the series’ cancellation in August of 2024, despite a generally good reception both in viewership and critical acclaim (Otterson), has diminished this feat: The Dead Boy Detectives return to being ghosts whose story doesn’t matter enough to be told (any further). Their true grievability may lay in the fan’s effort to get the series renewed and to bringing the dead boys back to life.

[Works Cited (besides the eipsodes themselves): Butler, Judith. Frames of War. When is Life Grievable? Verso, 2009.]

[valyrfia]

I think the "Charles are washed, Carlos will fight for the WDC" arguments that I see here and on twitter are indicative of a wider crisis that's happening in general media AND scientific literacy right now which is that people want to take easy facts at face value, and refuse to listen to or understand the context behind it.

Charles is not washed and Carlos will not fight for the WDC. These two facts are pretty clear, but to understand they require a person to go beyond the Instagram graphic of a race win and actually examine the contexts in which Carlos won, and the wider separate contexts of Charles and Carlos's recent careers. Carlos is less consistent that Charles on all fronts, and the reason why Charles is not a WDC yet has nothing to do with his mindset nor a lack of talent, but rather a complete mismanagement masterclass by Mattia Binotto who was Ferrari team principal for four years of Charles's career, and whose influence was still felt in Ferrari until the end of last year and will continue until Carlos leaves at the end of this year. These are not "excuses", these are vital data to take into account when trying to predict an outcome. I have a STEM background, and the first thing that is drilled into you for all laboratory experiments is to always provide environmental context for your set-up, as anything not accounted for will skew your results. A pretty famous one in physics is scientists supposedly measuring faster than light travel (which is impossible via our current understanding of physics), going on to publish and record their findings, before finding out that a loose cable accounted for the time deficit and their measurements returned to being slower than light once the cable was fixed. Similar principle applies to the Ferrari F1 team at the moment, Carlos only appears faster than Charles if you don't consider all factors that could produce a result like this. Once you do, it becomes clear that a lot of the sensationalism surrounding Carlos at the moment is simply untrue.

Context is vital, ESPECIALLY in a sport like F1 where team management, engineering, and the interplay of both with a driver are absolutely crucial factors to success and its a real problem that current F1 journalism (cough cough Sky Sports) more often than not refuses to provide it, in most cases seemingly because they can't be bothered and it makes their jobs and lives easier to run a sensationalist headline that people will spend less time trying to dissect and understand.